Count to Seven
by ensiathe3rd
Summary: A simple task to give a three year old while she waits for her mother. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Easy. But as life would have it, forever is a lot more than seven. To many to count, and a lot more painful.
Their mom had said a week. One week and they'd be together again. A promise that any loving parent would make to their kids without hesitation. It gave them hope, something to wait for. The kids couldn't get too out of hand because mom was coming back and any kid would rather be greeted with a smile and a hug instead of a frown. One week, seven days, that's all she had to wait. It wasn't too bad, she had her sister and their dad and they liked to play with her, although her sister was a lot better at their games than their dad, but she would let dad play anyway, because mom always said to be nice to everyone. And she wanted nothing more than to make their mom proud.

The only problem was that she must have been having too much fun, because she lost track of time. She could have sworn it had been seven days since their mom left, but maybe she was just so excited that she counted ahead. She was pretty good with numbers, but even she could miss a 3 here and there. Silly mistake. She tried again, but after a little while she figured that she must have accidently counted naptime as a day. No problem. Mommy always kept promises, it hadn't been a week yet. Still, it concerned her how bad her math was. She learned how to count to seven ages ago, why was she having such trouble now? She tried for the longest time to figure out how she kept getting to 17 instead of seven, but nothing ever really seemed right. She decided she would ask mommy when the week was up and after she gave her traditional welcome back hug. Because everyone is supposed to keep their promises and mommy promised to be back in a week.

Her sister, their father, and their uncle didn't seem to have the same amount of patience though. One night just before bedtime, he had come into the house. He looked sad, he probably missed mommy. She did too. He talked to their dad for a while in secret volume. Mommy always said that was bad, because they were supposed to share things with all the people they loved. Though sometimes, she would do it with her sister in the dark of their shared room.

He must have been mean to daddy, because their dad got really angry and yelled and called him a liar. It wasn't nice to yell at people, she knew that much. People don't listen when you yell. But it didn't seem like either adult cared about setting a good example. Daddy looked ready to hit him, but he just sat down on the couch really quietly and looked upset. Being called a liar must have really hurt his feelings, and plus she knew that she didn't like it when daddy yelled so clearly no one else did.

Since mommy was gone she decided to take it upon herself to have them make nice. They were friends after all and friends shouldn't be angry at each other. She walked over to the couch and tried to climb up it. She was still too short, but their uncle laughed quietly at her and lifted her up and placed her in his lap. He smelled funny, but he ruffled her hair like he always did and smiled the kind of upset smile he used when he didn't want her to know he was upset. She gave him her best smile to make him feel better. He pulled her into a hug and held tight.

Her sister had run into the room at the sound of all the yelling and asked what was wrong. The sound of a table being flipped was all the answer they were given. She wondered why their dad did that, the table didn't do anything wrong. Her sister looked worried and their uncle just ran his fingers through her hair. He sighed sadly and told them to come here, which she found weird because she was already here. Her sister slowly walked to the couch and climbed up, pretty purple eyes met her own silver ones. Her sister didn't know why everybody was so upset either. Arms shifted her so that she could their uncle in the face. He looked her right in the eye and told them that there was an accident. Well, less an accident and more a series of unfortunate events. Or so he said. Their dad made a bitter noise, but he didn't pay any mind to the interruption. He said that their mother wasn't coming home.

He was wrong of course. Her uncle was always a strange man, he was funny. But what he didn't know was that mommy always kept promises, and once a week was up he'd see. He was just being impatient really. Mommy once told her and her sister that when a person loves someone, nothing could keep them away. And mommy loved them, pure and simple. The only reason mommy wouldn't come home is if she didn't love them anymore, which was crazy because mommy also promised to love them forever, and mommy _always_ kept promises. Her sister seemed confused. So little faith, but she really wasn't upset with her best friend. Sometimes on really long nights, she doubted it too. But not here, and not now.

Words were thrown around the room for a little while, Grimm, dead, and hero, tended to be at the front. She didn't really understand what they were talking about. She just wondered why everyone was getting so upset. Even her sister was screaming. She didn't see the point, mommy would be back soon. She tried to tell her daddy this, but as their eyes met, something snapped. A face that was once sad, turned angrier than she had ever seen. The man who would play with her and carry her around on broad shoulders, laughing loudly the entire time, broke their eye contact and with a horrible scream and a crash, turned and punched through the wall of their living room.

She didn't know why daddy was angry with her. She couldn't remember doing anything bad, but maybe she had and she'd just forgotten or not known. The adults were always making up these rules and sometimes it was hard to remember them all. But still, she didn't like it when daddy was angry normally, but daddy had never been angry at _her_ before. She didn't understand why this would be the time to start.

Her uncle stood, setting her on the floor as he crossed the room and started yelling at their father who started yelling back. Her sister seemed frozen in terror, and her own eyes burned with tears. Chaos filled her home, and her tummy felt sick. Everybody was unhappy, but mommy always said that nobody should be sad or angry when they are home. And mommy's always right, mommy told her that much. She tried to tell them to stop fighting but no one listened to her. They probably didn't hear her over their yelling. She tried to raise her voice, but she couldn't be loud enough. Everything was too loud, it bashed against her ears and they hurt badly. It felt like someone was stepping on her chest. She couldn't breathe, the walls seemed to shrink. They tried to trap her and hold her down. Her head hurt and the world turned black at the edge of her vision. She pressed her tiny hands to her ears to drown out some of it. Nothing helped. She wanted her mommy. But mommy wasn't here. Not until a week was up.

She was shaking and tears blurred her vision. She wanted to run, get away from all of the yelling, find her mom. So she did. She ran away unnoticed by anyone. She found herself outside while screams echoed from the inside. Mommy _would_ be coming back, and anyone who doubted it was a liar. She would wait forever if that was what it took.

The moonlight lit up the ground like daytime. It wasn't right, somethings just were never supposed to happen. Daytime was daytime and nighttime was nighttime that was how the world worked. Day would follow night, winter would follow fall, and her mom would come back. She felt cold as frustrated tears flowed down her face. Her uncle was pulling a mean joke and she wanted him to stop, it wasn't funny. It was making daddy and her sister upset. Once the week was up, mommy would yell at him for being mean.

She fell sleepy pretty quickly, it was way past her bed time and the yelling soon stopped leaving only the silence of the night to creep upon her. She couldn't be sure but she could have sworn that she saw a figure in red at the line to the woods. She thought it might be her mom, but the figure was gone as soon as she double checked. She decided that she should get inside anyway. Mommy could be mad if she was found outside this late after bedtime. She would double check in the morning.

She tiptoed around the living room. Their father and their uncle, had gotten out the adults only drinks and were staring at the floor. Everything smelt funny. She went to her room, only to find that her sister wasn't there. No biggie. Her sister was probably getting ready for bed. She went over to the bathroom but it was empty. Strange. She needed to find her sister, so they could go to bed, mommy wouldn't like it if they were still up at this hour. She walked the hallways, it was really quiet now, usually there was at least some noise going on. She didn't like it.

She eventually, found her sister up in their parents' room, curled under the covers, and sobbing. She didn't like it when her sister was upset, it made her feel bad. She was too short to climb up on her own, but she was smart. Mommy said so. Eventually, she managed to stack boxes to help her up. She crawled over to where her sister was hiding and got under the covers next to her. It felt weird being there without mommy or daddy, but she pushed the feeling away. Her sister was more important. And it smelt like mommy and daddy so that would have to do. She wiped away a tear from her sister's face with her thumb like mommy did whenever she cried. Her big sister pulled her into a hug and held her there really tight, like she was a stuffed bear. She didn't mind her sister's hugs, for the most part she loved them even when they were a bit too tight. What she didn't like about this hug was that her sister was crying into her hair which was kinda gross, but it was more that the reason for the hug was that her sister was upset. She didn't like that. Her sister was the brave and strong one, not her. If anyone was supposed to be crying, it should be her, not the other way around. That's just how it worked. Big sisters didn't cry, but then again neither do adults, but their daddy and uncle were breaking that rule too. They all must really miss mommy, but she did too. She was just the only one who believed mommy kept promises.

She supposed that just this once she can be the big sister. Or at least try, she was too small to play the part right, but she figured it didn't matter that much. She wrapped her arms around her sister and burrowed closer into the warmth. She closed her eyes and let the darkness carry her away to dreamland to wait for mommy. Everything would be okay in the morning. After all, mommy promised to be back. Once the week was over, they'd see.

 **AN; and that's that. maybe next time I should consider doing something happier. puppies maybe. meh, que sera sera. either way, hope you liked this. please leave a review if you have time. ensia.**


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